Month: November 2018

Today, Princess Marie visited the European School’s new building in Copenhagen.

The School was created in 2014 and they moved into the new building at Carlsberg Byen in October. Princess Marie works closely with the school since 2014 and she was already the one who officially opened the school back then. But back in 2014, there were only four classes and the school was in a rented building. Now the school has its own building with more classes and it is the first public international school in Denmark. About the school’s admission system, Copenhagen Municipality stated that: “Everyone can apply for admission to the school, which is without parental payment. There are a primary school, middle school, schooling, and high school. There is no waiting list or payment for admission. The places are divided according to a number of criteria, where among other things EU workers’ children and foreigners residing in Denmark to work are prioritized, but the school is also for local children. “

The school aims to “build bridges between cultures – not least through the knowledge of foreign languages. Besides high academic standards, we attach great importance to developing our pupil’s social competencies. Curiosity, respect, collaboration and empathy are central values in the daily life of our multicultural school.” The school is a division of the internationally renowned Sankt Annæ Gymnasium (SAG), with a shared board and principal to ensure that it is solidly anchored in the Danish educational system. The school now has 15 classes divided into two languages sections, English and Danish. In August 2019, eight new classes are scheduled to open: two new kindergarten classes, two new “Secondary 5” classes, and four new classes in the new French language section.

The new school building has been constructed by BAM Denmark in cooperation with Vilhelm Lauritzen Architects, Nord Architects and the consulting engineers EKJ. It has “seven floors, including two underground levels, with a total area of 14,000 sqm. The building is divided into a primary and secondary education and will accommodate 1,100 students. It includes teaching and practice rooms, an auditorium, a sports hall, and other facilities. ” Here are photos of the stairs in the school:

Princess Marie collaborates with European School Copenhagen to help strengthen the knowledge of the school’s educational programs and other activities, as well as participate in special events and activities, both nationally and internationally. It made sense for Princess Marie to collaborate with the school as she had an international schooling herself. Indeed, she studied in Switzerland before studying for four years in the USA. Princess Marie is also working with the SDU (the University of South Denmark) on programs welcoming international students.

When Princess Marie arrived into the building, she was greeted by children waving flags and she posed with them for a few photos. Princess Marie also made a speech before cutting the ribbon in order to officially inaugurate the new school building.“I am delighted for the students, parents, and staff, that you now have your own school here in Carlsberg City,” she said During the ceremony, children sang ‘We Are The World’ by Michael Jackson.

After the ceremony, Princess Marie met two young students who showed her a scientific experiment which led to Marie asking if she should wear a helmet for protection during the experiment.

You can see a video here. It looks like this event was a lot of fun for everyone involved.

For this event, Princess Marie wore a black knit turtleneck with a new Baum und Pferdgarten skirt.

On November 13th, Princess Marie attended the Stop Wasting Food Dinner in Copenhagen.

The international Stop Wasting Food Dinner was hosted by Selina Juul and the Ambassador of the Netherlands to Denmark Henk Swarttouw to support the fight against food waste. In addition to Princess Marie, guests included the Danish Minister for Environment and Food Jakob Ellemann-Jensen and high-level leaders from organizations and businesses. The hope is to make this dinner an annual tradition with a different embassy hosting each year.

About Princess Marie attending the dinner, Selina Juul said: “We are very thankful that H.R.H. Princess Marie will participate in our dinner against food waste – and we are very delighted for the Princess’ enthusiasm in the fight against food waste. Earlier this year in Stop Wasting Food, we had honor and pleasure to prepare a lunch with focusing on food waste at the Princess’ own home together with the Princess, the Princess’ children, and ten school children.”

The dinner consisted of a menu made out of surplus food and prepared by Dutch chef Lucas Jeffries – who works at the InStock restaurant which fights against food waste- and Danish chef Martin Jacobsen – who works at the Kadeau and the Nabo restaurants. The surplus food included imperfect fruits and vegetables and any food that would have been wasted because it did not fit the supermarkets’ expectations (sometimes just because of a misplaced tag). The guests were invited to take the leftovers home in biodegradable boxes. Princess Marie had the opportunity to see them cook after her arrival.

About the guests attending, Selina Juul said: “The people who come here for dinner, they are all very relevant to the agenda. They did not only came because they are famous and to eat some nice food. They came because they all have a relationship with the fight against food waste”

The idea of the dinner came from the Dutch Ambassador to Denmark Henk Swarttouw: “Too much food is wasted in the world. Over 33 percent of all food produced is wasted, so I would very much like to help raise awareness about this problem and support the fight. That is why I have chosen to become an ambassador of the Stop Wasting Food Movement” he said to TV2 Lorry.

For the event, Princess Marie wore a new Zara dress (with thanks to @JAusten). The dress features “a V-shaped opening and a matching tie detail at the neck and long sleeves with wide cuffs, a seam at the waist and a loose-fitting A-line skirt with a wide ruffle trim on the hem.”

This weekend, Prince Joachim and Princess Marie were in Braine, France to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War.

During the First World War, Denmark was neutral but 35000 Danish soldiers at the border between Denmark and Germany fought for the German army. Indeed, Southern Jutland was part of the German Empire at the time. Southern Jutland was reunited with Denmark in 1920.

One of the Southern Jutland cities, Haderslev, is twinned with the French city of Braine where the only Danish Cemetery in France is located. It was officially reopened by Prince Joachim back in June 2013 and 79 fallen soldiers are buried there. Considering Prince Joachim and Princess Marie both lived in Southern Jutland for years and that Marie is French, it made sense that they were the ones representing the Danish royal family at these ceremonies.

On Saturday evening, they were welcomed by Braine’s mayor François Rampelberg before attending a friendship dinner. They also attended a concert of the Slesvigske Musikkorps at Saint-Yved Church. This concert was a gift from Haderslev to Braine.

Prince Joachim said: “I am pleased that so many participants from Sønderjylland have found their way to Braine to mark this important day. It’s been five years since I was here to reopen the Danish cemetery with fallen Danish soldiers from South Jutland, and now I’m happy to return and mark the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I. “

For this weekend of commemoration, Marie wore two fully recycled outfit. On Saturday, she wore her Azzato coat, paired with her Jimmy Choo pumps and her Bottega Veneta clutch. On Sunday, she carried the same Bottega Veneta clutch with a ufo coat that dates back to 2008.

Today, Princess Marie was in Glasgow, Scotland to attend the Scottish Autism 50th Anniversary Conference as Patron of the Danish Association for Autism.

Scottish Autism was established in 1968 by a group of parents and they are now the largest provider of autism-specific services in Scotland and a leading authority and advocate for good autism practice. Scottish Autism aims to “help those diagnosed with autism to lead full and enriched lives and become valuable members of the community they live in. We also seek to share our knowledge and expertise with parents, carers and other professionals in order to support the development of skills and strategies needed to provide the best care and support for autistic people. Building partnerships locally, nationally and internally provides us with the exciting opportunity to learn and share our knowledge of good autism practice with other countries. “

Scottish Autism’s Deputy CEO Charlene Tait is a member of the Council of Administration for Autism-Europe which is an association gathering almost 90 national and regional organizations advocating for the rights of autistic people from 30 European countries. Autism affects an estimated 50,000 people in Scotland or 1 in 100 people. In Denmark there are approximatively 70,000 people diagnosed with autism, it is more than 1 in 100.

Scottish Autism offers a wide range of support services for people with autism in Scotland: “We provide a wide range of flexible and innovative support services for children and adults across Scotland, each with a focus on improving quality of life. Central to this is recognizing that each person has a unique set of needs. We create personalized support plans which are based on an individual’s own strengths and motivations and on achieving outcomes which are meaningful to them.”

These support services include children services such as outreach support, respite, and short breaks services and education service to “take the time to build up a deep understanding of each young person, taking into account their processing and thinking style in order to maximize their learning potential. Our dedicated team of practitioners receives regular autism specific training and they are equipped with the knowledge and skills to enable each child and young person to have positive life experiences.”

But the association also focuses on support for adults such as supported living services which aim to help developing independence but also transition support services that aim “to assess an individual’s needs and build the skills and strategies required to enable them to move on to the most appropriate, sustainable and longer-term setting.”

Another important part of Scottish Autism’s support services is dedicated to the families in order to help them understand autism better and to help them whenever they need it but also to the professionals. Indeed the association has an advice line as well as a toolbox and training service available.

In order to celebrate their 50th anniversary, Scottish Autism organized several events all year with the big focus being this international two-day conference “Innovation in Autism Practice: The Future is Calling”.

The program of the conference was influenced by “a contemporary view that embraces autism as a developmental difference and focuses on a capacity view of the individual”. Scottish Autism also sponsored The Participatory Autism Research Collective (PARC) to host an Autism Fringe which included workshops, discussions and information sharing.

Princess Marie, as Patron of the Danish Association for Autism, made the opening speech after the welcoming speech by Charlene Tait. Sadly, the Court hasn’t updated Princess Marie’s speech yet but I’ll update the post as soon as they do. We do know she talked about the value of sharing knowledge and experience as well as the importance of working together to improve the lives of autistic people.

A passionate advocate for greater support & rights for autistic people, HRH Princess Marie is patron of Autism Denmark.

We are honoured to have HRH Princess Marie opening our conference & later meeting with Iceberg Film Productions – a group of autistic SA film makers #SAconf18pic.twitter.com/Q7efKS9oAP

Stigma is not a product of ignorance but of cultural social constructs of what is ‘the ideal person’. Well said Prof Rob Roy Grinker @scottishautism#SAConf18 What matters is not the word but the social/cultural implications of the word – autism.

About Princess Marie attending the conference, Charlene Tait said: “We had the pleasure of meeting with Princess Marie at last year’s ‘Meeting of Minds’ autism event in Copenhagen to discuss a number of areas where Scotland and Denmark are working together in close collaboration. She is a real champion of the autism community and has been a great supporter of the joint working going on between ourselves and Autism Denmark. We look forward to welcoming her to Scotland and to hearing her speak at this year’s conference.”

Princess Marie indeed attended the Meeting of Minds conference last year in Copenhagen and I believe she will attend this year’s Meeting of Minds conference on November 29th although this wasn’t confirmed by the Court yet. This year’s theme is ‘Autism in Doubt’. According to the Danish Association for Autism’s website, some of the topics that will be discussed at the conference are :

After the keynote speeches at the Scottish Autism Conference, seminars started while Princess Marie left the Grand Central Hotel where the conference was held to go to the Kelvingrove Art Gallery & Museum along with Deputy CEO Charlene Tait. The museum is part of an initiative along with the other eight Glasgow museums to become more autism aware. This year they launched a new programme of early openings, autism-friendly workshops, and resources. In 2017, three of those museums already made improvements and now have trained Autism Champions to raise staff awareness, visual storyboards and pre-visit information to help plan the visit and sensory kits that can be borrowed.

At the Museum, Princess Marie met with students from the Iceberg Productions including Jason Donaldson, Daniel Page, Lee Roibrown, Emma Stanley and John Sapseed. According to Scottish Autism’s press release: “Iceberg Productions is a group of young autistic film-makers which is based at Blue Central, one of Scottish Autism’s Day Services. This project is led by John Innes and Ian Noble of the Untold Motion Picture Company. Ian and John have considerable experience in film-making, photography and sound recording and work closely with Scottish Autism, running a number of film-making taster courses for the individuals supported by the charity. The aspiration is to enable autistic individuals who are interested in film-making to be part of an in-house production company.”

One of the students, Jason, was able to interview Princess Marie and he then took a selfie with her which was shared on his school’s twitter account. Jason is a student at the New Struan School which is a day and residential school for students between 5 and 19 years old. Their vision is “to enable our pupils to become included, confident learners in the community. We know that young people with autism can be successful learners and we strive to provide the structured and supportive environment which enables them to reach their full potential. ”

When asked by Jason what was the best thing about being a Princess, Marie said : “The best thing is to be out for a day like this and meet people like those I’ve met here today in Scotland.”

The school even has a rabbit named Freddie and he has his own twitter account! He even congratulated Jason for his meeting with Princess Marie and said that the class had been checking Twitter all day to see if there was any photo of Jason! Jason said Marie was lovely and it looks like it was an amazing moment for everyone involved!

Princess Marie and the students posed for a photo in front of their taxis at the end of the event and Glasgow Taxis tweeted that they were honored to be transporting Marie today.

Honoured to be transporting HRH Princess Marie of Denmark today, who is visiting Glasgow to speak at Scottish Autism’s international 50th Anniversary conference. A passionate advocate for greater support and rights for autistic people, HRH is patron of Autism Denmark. #SAconf18pic.twitter.com/3YFLWX3hTJ

In the evening, Princess Marie attended the evening dinner at the Grand Central Hotel which is the Hotel where she stayed. Sadly, there is only one photo so far. I believe Marie wore a new dress but I’m not sure.

In their report about the day, the Danish Association for Autism said: “The Autism National Association expresses its sincere thanks to HKH Princess Marie for the great involvement in the autism area, both nationally and internationally – and for the amazing work of the protector and in the meeting with autistic people and their families. “

For this day in Scotland, Princess Marie wore a fully recycled outfit. She chose to wear a Giorgio Armani double-breasted that she first wore in 2014 and black trousers.